A personal blog about the life & sauce of Annelise Rowe. Air Force & Air National Guard, Boise, Idaho, travel, healthy living, faith, and running.

Monday, September 22, 2014

Quick, Easy & Healthy Recipes

As part of my dairy-free and healthy-eating initiative, I've started planning out my work-week meals, prepping them in bulk, and living out of tupperware containers. I pretty much eat the same things for the first four meals of the day, and then have something fun for dinner. Breakfast = oatmeal, snack = fruit or protein rice cake, lunch = protein + veggies, snack = veggies or nuts, dinner = TBD.

Here are three of my favorite work-week recipes that help keep my body fueled and my calories on track. To keep it low-maintenance, I typically take one of the basic recipes below and sub ingredients to create new combinations. It helps keep my menu fresh while keeping my time spent in the kitchen to a minimum.

Tip: Can be made in bulk and/or as overnight oats! I also sometimes add peanut butter, powdered protein, Cheerios (yes, Cheerios—Chocolate and Peanut Butter Whole Grain Cheerios are the best!) and/or nuts. I eat oatmeal for breakfast every single day (and depending on my workout, sometimes opt for a 1/2c instead of 1/4c).

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 8-hours. Portion out into containers and enjoy with a side of fresh veggies.

Serves: 8

Approximate calories per serving: 204

Tip: If your planning meals for you and a significant other, this is a great one to put over rice, noodles or on a bun for those who require a higher daily caloric intake. You can also sub the cup of sauce for a salsa or marinade to switch up the flavors and theme of the meal.

Directions: Mix ingredients together with whisk. Refrigerate. Mix again in 10 minutes (helps remove tapioca-like clumps). Portion into containers and refrigerate overnight. When ready to eat, top with coconut milk, preserves and cinnamon.

Serves: 3

Approximate calories per serving: 169

The credit from this recipe goes to my cousin Kristen!

A big thanks goes out to Robert Rothschild Farm, who provided all of the delicious sauces and fruit preserves to make these recipes possible! I've experimented with many of their organic sauces and found that I can modify my recipes just slightly to accommodate any of their sauces into a delicious recipe. And it doesn't stop there—their sauces double as dips (Pineapple Habanero pictured with my steak above) and salad dressings (Blueberry Balsamic over my spinach & peach salad) too!

Healthy eating doesn't have to be hard or take hours in the kitchen. If you take the few minutes to prep your meals over the weekend and portion them out for the week, you're putting yourself on that path to a healthy body & healthy lifestyle.

PS / / I was interviewed over at the Dansko blog, Word of Foot, about how to kickstart your daily routine & incorporate healthy living all day long. Read the feature here!

These are awesome! I just recently moved in with my boyfriend and we are trying to kick our butts back in our best shape (we did the relationship bad eating thing haha) so I will definitely be using these! That slow cooker chicken looks so amazing! Thanks for sharing girly :)

Ah, you spotted the low-cal counts!! Yep. And that's why I eat so much during the day (those were just 3 of the recipes that I use for a few of my meals). I also have a post-workout protein shake, that oatmeal (which I double in size if I do a killer workout), morning snack (fruit, rice cakes, peanut butter, etc), lunch which typically also includes something like a tortilla, rice and/or potato, a few pieces of candy for dessert (I mean, how can you resist Celeste's Peanut Butter M&M jar, right?), afternoon snack, and then typically dinner is my downfall. We go out to eat several nights a week, remember? We don't always make the best decisions when we go out (pizza, nachos, etc) so that's why I try to keep it pretty clean during the day. Trust me, if that was all I ate all the time, you'd see me disappear into nothing! :) haha. Thanks for always having my back, Miss Z! :)

I used to make overnight oats for Jon and myself (he has especially early mornings)... but just got bored over time and had forgotten all about it. But your suggestion of adding Chocolate & Peanut Butter Cheerios sounds frickin' amazing lol.

I love the idea of having everything prepped - I'm usually pretty terrible about that, and then I end up whipping together whatever I find later. Or I eat one big meal and skip my snacks and lunch, and then end up starving when I get home. Thanks for the reminder to get back on track with my healthy habits!

If I could cook like you, I'd take my time and do it meal by meal, too! Haha. Also, that's the worst, waiting all day and being starving when you get home. I have tried to eat everything in my pantry before when doing that!